Masson, André

Masson, André (äNdrā` mäsôN`), 1896–1987, French painter and graphic artist. An exponent of surrealism until 1928, Masson developed "automatic writing"—spontaneous linear expressions of his personal mythology. After World War II he painted superb landscapes in Aix-en-Provence. His Meditation on an Oak Leaf and other works are in the Museum of Modern Art, New York City.

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Masson, André (-Aimé-René)

(born Jan. 4, 1896, Balagny, France—died Oct. 28, 1987, Paris) French painter and graphic artist. After studying painting in Brussels and Paris, he was severely wounded in World War I, and an overriding pessimism penetrated his art. He joined the Surrealist movement in 1924 and became the leading practitioner of automatism. In the late 1920s and '30s he produced turbulent images of violence, psychic pain, eroticism, and physical metamorphosis, using sinuous lines to delineate abstract biomorphic forms. He lived in Spain (1934–36) and later the U.S. (1941–45), where he became an important link between Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism. He later returned to France and concentrated on landscape painting.